2023 | Year in Review
Suffice it to say, 2023 has been a unique, albeit perplexing year.
Between inflation and interest rates alone, development has been severely impacted while the movement (or lack thereof) known as ‘Return To Office’ continues to stymie downtowns like DC, impacting just about everything that lends vibrancy to our urban communities. But all is not as it might at first appear. One paradox has been a noteworthy increase in our brick-and-mortar retail projects. Contrary to the retail trends of recent years, people are shopping again…in physical stores!
This year, MV+A began work on retail projects exceeding a total of 500,000 SF. We also completed two new Whole Foods Market stores and began work on two more. Several of our larger retail projects do in fact include substantial multi-family residential programs, and other new commercial projects include DC’s first cannabis grow facility.
Not only were we fortunate to stay quite busy through the year, we also renovated and expanded our office space—effectively doubling the area and significantly increasing our amenity and collaboration spaces. We launched a completely new MV+A website, which has been planned to accommodate our increasing inventory of motion content, and we more than doubled our Instagram following! As you will see below, 2023 was a transformative year here at MV+A and we’re pleased to share these accomplishments with you—our colleagues, friends, and family!
PROJECTS: In Construction | Coming Soon
This year MV+A saw significant progress on several signature projects in construction.
Our Broad + Washington project in Falls Church, VA is currently on track for completion in April of 2024. When complete, the project will bring 334 apartment units, a new Whole Foods Market, and a new home for the acclaimed Creative Cauldron Theatre, to a currently underutilized site at a major intersection in the thriving community of Falls Church.
Another project bringing new life to an underutilized site is MV+A’s Westbard Square project in Bethesda, MD. As the first phase of a larger MV+A-designed master plan, this project replaces an existing Giant Food store that remained open during construction. Once the Giant Food store opens in the coming month, the original building will be demolished to make way for a mixed-use multifamily project along with a major new public space conjoining the two projects. Later phases include an additional 250,000 SF of townhomes.
Kennett Square Lofts in Kennett Square, PA, is a 166-unit multifamily project that occupies an entire city block in this charming borough. Its thoughtfully detailed, contextual exterior achieved a quick entitlements approval and the pace of construction has followed suit. The project is currently slated for completion in late 2024 / early 2025.
Broad + Washington | Falls Church, VA
Clockwise from top: 1+2—Westbard Square | Bethesda, MD, 3+4—Kennett Square Lofts | Kennett Square, PA
Two other projects nearing completion include White Oak Town Center in White Oak, MD and Willow Grove Shopping Center in Willow Grove, PA. Both of these projects reflect an increasing trend towards ‘urbanizing infill’ projects in existing suburban locales.
White Oak Town Center is a new, ground-up retail center intended to transform an underutilized industrial area into a vibrant mixed-use community. While the first phase is all retail, a future phase calls for additional multifamily housing.
Willow Grove Shopping Center is a major renovation / re-positioning of an existing retail center with a similar plan to increase density and diversity of uses including an eventual mixed-use multifamily building.
White Oak Town Center (top) and Willow Grove Shopping Center (bottom)
In Progress | More Urbanizing Infill
2023 saw an increase in our work around underutilized suburban properties well suited for increased density and expanded land use. Two major projects in this market include Lulah Hills in Decatur, GA and Cascades Marketplace in Sterling, VA.
Lulah Hills reimagines a derelict mall in Atlanta’s North Dekalb County as a new mixed-use community, encompassing 2.5 million square feet, including 320,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space, 1,700 multifamily units, 100 townhomes, a 150-key hotel, and a Path Foundation Trail connection to Emory University.
Cascades Marketplace is a 32-acre shopping center in Sterling, Virginia. The center formerly included surface parked big box retail and a pedestrian scaled, retail lined Main Street. The proposed property re-zoning allows for additional townhomes and 2 over 2’s, multifamily apartments, new retail offerings, and open spaces, while maintaining many of the big box retail spaces and intimate scaled shops.
Top 3 Images: Lulah Hills | Decatur, GA;Bottom 3 Images: Cascades Marketplace | Sterling, VA
In Progress | More Multifamily
MV+A’s portfolio of multifamily projects also continued to expand in 2023.
Isaac Newton Square in Reston, VA is a 345-unit residential building which received a unanimous approval (11-0) from the Fairfax Planning Commission earlier this year—no small feat! This project continues to build on MV+A’s success with Fairfax County approvals, having entitled no fewer than five projects of similar scope and scale in the past few years.
Prospect Hill in Greenville, SC—a 153-unit residential building—also received unanimous approval earlier this year and is just one of several exciting MV+A projects currently in the works for Greenville.
The project site for 1001 South Glebe Road is currently occupied by a gas station and service center in a sea of surface parking, prominently located at the corner of Columbia Pike and Glebe Road in Arlington, VA. A key project within a larger effort to transform Columbia Pike, this project will radically transform a dysfunctional intersection to the nexus of a vibrant, walkable, main street community.
Top Row: Isaac Newton Square | Reston, VA; Middle Row: Prospect Hill | Greenville, SC; Bottom Row: South Glebe Road | Arlington, VA
There are many other active multifamily projects at MV+A that have either received approval and are in production or are undergoing revisions. Some of those projects include Mount Vernon Gateway in Fairfax, VA, Virginia Village in Leesburg, VA, Elms Dunn Loring in Fairfax, VA, and Reservoir District Parcels 2+4 (formerly knows as McMillan Sand Filtration Site).
Clockwise from top left: Mt. Vernon Gateway, Virginia Village, Elms Dunn Loring, and Reservoir District Parcel 4
Awards | Kentlands Market Square | Gaithersburg, MD
We are pleased to announce that MV+A’s Kentlands Market Square project was awarded a 2023 Excellence in Design Merit Award from the AIA | Potomac Valley Chapter.
Kentlands Market Square presents a series of strategic, place-based interventions intended to re-position and prime a conventional, surface-parked retail center for the ‘successional urbanism’ originally envisioned by the original Kentlands master plan—intended to increase the diversity of land uses, improve walkability, and promote vibrant street life and community identity over time. The project demonstrates how modest but powerful design strategies can make major impacts in the evolution of the built environment and community place-making.
Jury Comments: “What a great model for sprawl repair. As an urban design solution, this project takes on the suburban strip mall and converts it into a place for people rather than cars. This is a great strategy and approach showing that design with a scalpel rather than a hatchet can have such a totalizing effect. The future of community design will look a lot like this as we explore adaptive reuse and retrofit of automobile-oriented environments, to make places for people.”
The project was also awarded Silver from the ICSC 2023 Global Design & Development Awards for Renovations and Expansions Over 150K SF. We are honored and pleased for this recognition and are confident that this innovative retail project will continue to garner attention and accolades.
STAFF + OFFICE UPDATES
2023 was a Baby Boom year here at MV+A. Project Architect Rachel Jessup, Associate Kalinda Gathinji, Project Architect Ardavan Tookaloo, and Principal Neville Fernandes, all welcomed a new member to their families!
Congratulations and all the best to our teammates and their growing families!
Clockwise from top left: the Jessup Family, the Gathinji Family, the Tookaloo Family, and the Fernandes Family.
After working remotely for 3-years from Kinshasa, capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, where his wife had a unique work opportunity, Principal Russell Zung was finally reunited with his MV+A teammates. While we’re truly grateful for Russell’s return, we’re still processing the departure of Associate Aaron Hotaling who will be working remotely for the next few years as his wife also had a unique work opportunity in Naples, Italy.
This year there were several staff promotions. After passing their ARE’s, Dewi Tan and Ardavan Tookaloo were promoted to Project Architect. Harini Chandrasekhar was also promoted to Senior Architectural Designer. On a side note, at the end of this year, we will be saying farewell to Architectural Designer Ellen Delaney who will be retiring to become a fulltime artist.
Congratulations to these and all our MV+A teammates who made 2023 another exceptional year for the firm!
Clockwise from top left: Principal Russell Zung, Associate Aaron Hotaling, Project Architect Dewi Tan, Project Architect Ardavan Tookaloo, Senior Architectural Designer Harini Chandrasekhar, and Architectural Designer Ellen Delaney
Last but not least, 2023 saw the completion of MV+A’s newly renovated and expanded office space. While the entire office worked remotely for 4-ish months, we were able to put our post-Covid skills to good use avoiding the typical disruptions that often accompany office renovations. That said, the transition has been seamless and everyone has since returned to an open, airy, and beautifully appointed office.
And so, as another year comes to a close, we look forward to the adventure that is 2024 and wish each and every one of you:
Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year!